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It's easy for a guy to feel out of place at a department store jewelry counter: there's no way to tell if she's going to like the ring, mostly because she's already off buying your new school outfits at Aeropostale. For cooler stuff than anything currently under the glass, check out The Gold Bug

Crafted by a former JCPenney jewelry dept. assistant manager who noticed a lack of affordable/high-quality mewelry, the Bug's a line of glimmering dude accessories tinkered out from turn of the century watch components and molds in an Uptown Victorian mansion, most of which're inspired by "steampunk" -- a sci-fi sub-culture built on anachronistic machines, futuristic alternate-realities, and never getting laid. Some of her most intricate works are blingingly multi-layered 17" necklaces, like the "Steampunk Pilot's Propeller" with an actually-spinning prop, and multiple oxidized silver/brass molds of insects (from a slightly creepy "Clock Work" Silver Beetle w/ Seiko movement, to a near-Flava Flav-sized brass bee medallion on a pocket watch) riveted to non-functioning vintage watch movements from the '30s, a time in America when apparently not even the watches were working. To help you further man-ccessorize like it's 1899, there's a badass silver moneyclip with a snake and a lion battling it out, nickel cufflinks made of Citizen watch gearing, a silver dragon riveted on a leather cuff, and a belt buckle with a pocket watch movement layered beneath a silver skull, but not a Crystal Skull, as that would just make time seem to stand still

She's just acquired vintage car keys from the '50s and '60s that will feature cutouts so they can be used as bottle openers, something you'll need after a long day of playground ridicule for that lime green track jacket covered in patches.